Web News and Internet Information
You may have some questions about what exactly a Virtual Private Server is, and how it can benefit your business whilst reducing costs at the same time. Here is a tutorial which introduces you to Ausweb’s Virtuozzo VPS Hosting solution.
Strand says handset is operators’ worst friend : By Tony Dennis
One of the great things about the concept of cloud computing is the possiblities it creates for large, disruptive markets. We talk about compute capacity markets and the like all the time–that’s the commoditization of IT infrastructure. But, as Simon Wardley would be quick to point out, the commoditization of one technology almost always leads to the opportunity to innovate others. What are the new technologies that cloud infrastructure will enable?
An interesting discussion broke out in the “cloud-o-sphere” this week surrounding a related comment from our own Doug Gourlay at Cisco’s CScape analyst conference last week. In talking about the effects of cross-cloud workload mobility to Andreas Antonopoulos of Nemertes Research Group, Doug mentioned the concept of “Virtual-Routing” (a horrible term), the idea that one can move the compute loads to the best network location rather than rerouting the network to the workload.
Pipe Networks has announced that its plan to lay a new undersea fibre-optic cable between Australia and Guam will proceed, despite some initial hurdles faced during preliminary financial talks. The current tight financial market status had put a cloud over the project, but the overall support for the project from the various parties concerned saw an agreement reached and the required boxes ticked to begin the development process.
The new cable will be a huge benefit to Australian businesses and consumers, who currently face relatively limited access to the international internet backbone compared to many other countries. Naturally we here at AUSWEB are very pleased to hear the news and hope to see further network improvement announcements in the coming months.
Desktop virtualization has evolved in 2008 as a promising technology, with major vendors announcing or updating their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions. IDC predicts that desktop virtualization will grow to $2 billion annually by 2011, while Gartner forecasts that up to 660 million PCs will be virtualized in that same timeframe.
Internet users around the world have been put at risk by a very serious exploit found in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The exploit has put over 500 million internet users around the world at risk, as well as the websites they visit.
Microsoft have announced that users should use an alternate browser until they release an emergency patch to correct the issue which affects all versions of Internet Explorer. Microsoft Australia said that it was “working around the clock” to correct the fault in the browser used by 70 per cent of internet users.
Believed to have been created in China, the virus is used to steal information from victims infected computers. These details include game passwords, bank account details & logins as well as any other person information which can be used or sold in the cyber underworld.
All Internet Explorer users should make sure they have their automatic updates on, if not they can check the Microsoft website for updates here:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/updates/bulletins/200812_oob.mspx
Otherwise we would recommend everyone to get Firefox, the worlds leading and (in my opinion) the most secure browser.
Microsoft have released a patch to fix the exploit. Internet explorer users are recommended to head to: http://www.microsoft.com.au/security to download the latest Internet Explorer.
Google is planning to expand their worldwide infrastructure even further after announcing that they have just purchased an additional 60 acres of land for $3.13M in Lenoir, North Carolina. Lenoir has previously already been selected as a location for the search engine’s servers when Google announced in January 2007 they have purchased a large area of land in the county for the construction of a $600M data center. The Lenoir facility was opened in May this year.
Google’s operations manager for the existing Lenoir facility, Tom Jacobik has previously stated that the location chosen was a strategic decision made by the company. Google have been promised by local and state leaders that they would receive more than $100M in takes breaks over 30 years for building in the county. Compare this to Microsoft’s $20.7M tax abatement deal for the construction of their San Antonio center, Clearly google are eating a bigger slice of cake.
Ausweb has long strived itself on educating the young from an early age. We have spent hours apon hours producing tutorials and educational spiels for all to see as you can see in our tutorials section. Well today we add another grasshopper to the Ausweb ranks.
If you have lodged a ticket in our online support system, there is a good chance you have had at least one reply from our keyboard wielding, New Zealand Native, Tech Support Manager, Matt. Matt has been with Ausweb for a while now, and does put a fair bit of effort into meeting customers online support needs, after hours. Well it seems Matt hasn’t only been putting in overtime answering support tickets, he’s been busy preparing a new breed of Ausweb Staff!
Congratulations to Matt & Clare on their newest donation to the Ausweb support team, Caleb! Caleb was born Monday 8th of December at 5:30pm.
Matt and Caleb
All the best in the future, and hopefully we’ll see you guys soon!
PhpBB updated the popular forum application on December 12th 2008 with the release of the “one year anniversary” phpBB 3.0.4 package. The delivers a huge increase in performance along with fixes for some bugs introduced with the changes in 3.0.3. It also corrects some other minor issues, and two security bugs.
If you have not done so already, phpBB strongly urges all users of its application to update to the latest release of version 3. You can find more information at the phpBB website.
An teacher in Austin sent an angry, accusatory email to a local Linux collective (”HeliOS Project, which builds and provides Linux computers to disadvantaged or ‘exceptionally promising’ students”) accusing them of piracy for distributing the free operating system and excoriating them for encouraging her students to do the same. She threatened to have the group’s organizer investigated by the police, too.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s department yesterday launched a public consultation blog to gather ideas on the future of Australia’s digital policy.
Today that blog is filled with hundreds of comments attacking Senator Conroy over the Rudd Government’s controversial web filtering plan, along with the senator’s remarks on the issue.
Some critics believe Senator Conroy has equated web filtering opponents with child pornography supporters.
Other issues raised by readers on the Digital Economy Future Directions blog included the Government’s planned national broadband network and the structural separation of Telstra.
Seriously.. I can’t believe I haven’t gotten into these guys sooner. What have I been doing?! These guys are absolutely awesome.
I’ve so far, listened to a little of the Ministry of sound Mash up mix [2006] as well as the 2008 mix start to cover.. several times.. The 2008 mash up starts off with a oooge funky remix from house of pain which sets the vibe.
They have a great taste of music mixed with some amazing turntable/live mixing skills. No doubt they use serato, ableton or some sort of digital live mixing software, or a blend of both.
They must have an awesome library of funky loops and rhythms with a blend of awesome acapellas which they just seem to mix together like magic.
Of course, mash ups are nothing new to do the dance/music scene, Soulwax have been putting bootleg mashups together for years.. But these guys seem to do it a little different, and it’s the kind of juggling you would hear live. Not just pre-produced remixes.
They hammer through something like 105 records on the 2008 album ramming through everything from Indie, break beat, old skool and dance classics mixed alongside drum ‘n’ bass, hard house and trance in total mash up mayhem.
With an arsenal of dance’s finest hits The Mash Up Mix 2008 includes Basshunter’s MASSIVE No1 ‘Now you’re Gone’ (notching up an incredible 5 weeks at Number 1) H2O Feat Platinum ‘What’s It Gonna Be’ (currently at No 2in this week’s midweeks, looking set to take Bassline to No 1 stardom!), Utah Saints ‘Something Good’ (another radio smash and currently a youtube hit with its running man video!), mashed up with classics from Bootyluv, Gossip, Dizzee Rascal, Fedde Le Grand, Eric Prydz, Vanilla Ice, The Freaks, The Prodigy and Pendulum – forming exclusive never before heard bootlegs!
Drupal released the latest version of its CMS on December 11th 2008 addressing a number of highlighted issues and critical security vulnerabilities. The update should be available to install via Fantastico shortly, however you can also perform a manual update by following the link below to the Drupal site and downloading the latest version.
There has been a couple of discussions in the Ausweb office regarding the much talked about Govt. netfilter. We, working in the IT industry can see how this would largely effect the Australian market, as well as the general flow of Internet traffic throughout the country.
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